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C−

Oldbury Academy

SecondaryAges 11–16Academy

Oldbury, B68 8NE · Sandwell local authority

Oldbury’s School Grade C+ better than 39% of towns in England

Its letter
16%
of England’s secondaries have lower GCSE results
Getting in
82/82
first choices offered a place, 2026 (England: 84%)
How full
1,193 pupils
77% of its 1,550 places
Free school meals
54%
54 in 100 pupils eligible · outlined square = England’s schools (30)
The gist

What stands out about Oldbury Academy

  • Its own letter, C−: GCSE results better than 16% of England’s secondary schools
  • 30% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 17 points below England’s schools
  • 54% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (more than England’s 30%)
  • Ofsted report card, June 2026: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met (shown, not graded)
  • Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (82 of 82)
  • Progress 8 of -0.09 in 2023/24, the last year DfE published it: pupils did about as well at GCSE as pupils nationally with the same results at 11
  • Homes in its postcode sector (B68 8) sold for a median £222,000; Oldbury’s is £225,000

Results

DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 266 pupils

Each bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Oldbury beats are shaded green.

Attainment 8 39.5

Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 16% of schools · Sandwell avg 43.2

20304050607080England avg 47.3Oldbury 39.5

Grade 5+ in English and maths 30%

A strong pass · higher than 15% of schools · Sandwell avg 37%

0%20%40%60%80%100%England avg 47.3%Oldbury 30%

Attainment 8, three years

The mark is England’s average that year

2023/24
40.8
2024/25
37.4
2025/26
39.5

Progress 8, 2023/24

−1 behind0 = national+1 ahead

-0.09: about average. How pupils did at GCSE against pupils nationally with the same results at 11. Not published since 2023/24 (no Key Stage 2 tests in 2020 and 2021).

Disadvantaged pupils, 2025/26

Attainment 8 for the 145 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools

Disadvantaged
36.5England 38.6
Not disadvantaged
43.1England 50.6
Grade 4 or above in English and maths53%
England’s schools 66% · Sandwell 57% · a standard pass

England’s figures are of its graded mainstream state schools, each school counted once; grammar schools are included, which is why the right-hand tail is long. Small cohorts are suppressed.

Getting in

How hard is it to get a place at Oldbury Academy?

Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.

82
families put it first for September 2026
169
places offered
100%
of first choices offered a place (England’s secondaries: 84%)
First choices and places, by year of entry
20192020202120222023202420252026
Families who put it firstPlaces offered

In every year shown, every family who put it first was offered a place. The council runs the coordinated admissions; each school’s rules (siblings, distance, faith) decide who gets in. DfE doesn’t publish the furthest distance offered, so check the council’s admissions booklet for that. Stour Vale Academy Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Sandwell council’s coordinated admissions.

Demand for secondary schools in Oldbury, September 2026

Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places

1.32 per place
69% got their first choice
1.18 per place
76% got their first choice
0.57 per place
100% got their first choice
Oldbury
0.49 per place
100% got their first choice

Oldbury and Sandwell, side by side

2025/26

All 19 graded secondaries in Sandwell. Schools with more pupils on free school meals usually score lower, so a school above the crowd for its free school meals is doing better than its intake predicts. Oldbury’s schools are coloured by their letter.

30354045505510%20%30%40%50%60%Pupils eligible for free school meals →Attainment 8 →Bristnall HallQ3 Academy LangleyPerryfieldsOldbury
ABCDElsewhere in SandwellOldbury
Show as a table
SchoolLetterFree school mealsAttainment 8
Bristnall Hall AcademyB+38%51.6
Q3 Academy LangleyB+34%50.4
Sandwell AcademyB33%49
West Bromwich Collegiate AcademyB39%48.4
St Michael's Church of England High SchoolC+39%47.4
Shireland Collegiate AcademyB−44%45.7
Ormiston Sandwell Community AcademyC+34%44.7
Q3 Academy Great BarrB−26%44.1
Wood Green AcademyC+36%43.9
Stuart Bathurst Catholic High SchoolC−43%41.5
Perryfields AcademyC−39%41.4
Wodensborough Ormiston AcademyC49%41
George Salter AcademyC−41%40.5
Ormiston Forge AcademyC−44%40.1
Oldbury AcademyC−54%39.5
Gospel Oak SchoolD47%39.2
The Phoenix CollegiateD46%38.9
Holly Lodge High School College of ScienceD47%38.5
Q3 Academy TiptonD−48%34.1

Who goes here

DfE school census, January 2025

1,341 pupils. SEN support is extra help in school for a special educational need; an EHC plan is the council’s legal plan for pupils who need more.

SEN support
13.2%England 14%
EHC plan
1.2%England 3.2%
English as an additional language
44%England 19%
Free school meals in the last 6 years
53.4%England 29.6%

Girls and boys

Girls 51%Boys 49%
Its letter

Oldbury Academy’s letter

Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.

Secondary: Attainment 8 and grade 5+ English and maths C−Better than 16% of 3,224 schools
How school letters are worked out

Each school’s measure is compared with every graded school in England of the same phase: for primaries, the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (DfE’s three-year average); for secondaries, Attainment 8 and the share with grade 5 or above in English and maths, each turned into a z-score against England’s schools and averaged. The letter comes from the share of those schools it beats, in the same bands as every grade on the site. The same method gives U.S. schools their letters, against their own state.

A+ 95+A 85–94A− 75–84B+ 65–74B 55–64B− 45–54C+ 35–44C 25–34C− 15–24D 5–14D− 0–4

Graded: England’s open mainstream state schools with published results (grammar schools included, which select by test). Not graded: special schools, alternative provision, nurseries, 16–19 colleges, UTCs and studio schools, Welsh schools. Ofsted plays no part.

Ofsted

Ofsted inspections

Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.

Report card, inspection starting June 2026.

SafeguardingMet
AchievementNeeds attention
Curriculum and teachingNeeds attention
InclusionExpected standard
Attendance and behaviourExpected standard
Personal development and well-beingExpected standard
Leadership and governanceExpected standard

Before the report card: Graded inspection: Good, December 2021.

The full reports on Ofsted ↗

Living nearby

Living near Oldbury Academy

For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.

Home prices in B68 8, the school’s postcode sector

Oldbury property prices →
£222,000
median sale, 225 sales in 36 months · Oldbury £225,000

Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025

£100K£150K£200K£250K2010201520202025B68 8Oldbury
B68 8Oldbury

By type, the 36 months to August 2026

Detached
£279K
Semi-detached
£238K
Terraced
£185K
Flat
£130K
B68 8Oldbury

Homes in B68 8 sell for about the same as Oldbury’s typical price. HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales. Catchments aren’t published, so the postcode sector stands in for “around the school”.

Schools within 1.6 miles

29 state schools
0.5 mi1 mi1.5 miNC+BCC−CCB+A−CC+DDC−CB+BB+C+CB+C−BC−B−A−C−Oldbury Academy
ABCDNo letterPrimarySecondary / all-through

Oldbury, B68 8NE

Oldbury Academy: common questions

Is Oldbury Academy a good school?

By its published results, below average: its GCSE results are better than 16% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is C−), with an Attainment 8 of 39.5 and 30% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: a report card in June 2026.

How hard is it to get into Oldbury Academy?

For September 2026, 82 families put Oldbury Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 169 places were offered in all.

What is Oldbury Academy’s Ofsted rating?

Its latest inspection (June 2026) gave a report card: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met. Ofsted stopped giving one-word overall grades in September 2024.

How much do houses cost near Oldbury Academy?

Homes in its postcode sector, B68 8, sold for a median £222,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (225 sales).

Sources: DfE Get Information about Schools (16 October 2026), Key Stage 2 performance tables (2023–2025, three-year average) and Key Stage 4 (2025/26, provisional); Ofsted state-funded school inspections as at 30 September 2026. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Also: DfE Key Stage 4 performance, schools data (2023/24 and 2024/25 final, 2025/26 provisional) and Key Stage 2 performance tables 2024/25 by subject; DfE school census, January 2025; DfE school-level applications and offers, September 2019 to 2026 entry; HM Land Registry Price Paid by postcode sector, 2010 to August 2026.

A school’s letter is our own summary of its published results against England’s schools of the same phase; Oldbury’s School Grade is a separate grade, built from the results of the schools in and around the town against other towns. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.